OPINION: Who save the world

Teddy Locsin Jr.

From Rhys Buccat of ABS-CBN News comes this heartbreaking yet heart swelling story. A photo of a scrawny man watching his daughters enjoy a Jollibee fried chicken meal touched thousands who saw it. The man is a stroke victim and a single father with 2 kids, writes Rhys.

Ryan Arebuabo lives in a 4x4 hovel on a trash hill in Tondo. It is adorned with a single photo of the loves of his life, his 2 kids. He used to sell boiled corn but he had a stroke. So his wife left him. Typical. She took the kids—more typical. Half paralyzed and unable to work let alone talk, and too poor to afford therapy, Ryan made himself well.

He tried to get his wife and kids back. He fixed the hovel make it as presentable as he best could. He got a second-hand TV set to show he could support them. But she saw no future with him. Next best thing he fought for custody of the 2 kids and won. They go to school—Ann, 8, in Grade 2 and Rose Mae, 6, in Kinder.

He is a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, so thank you, Dinky Soliman, who boldly took GMA’s original concept from the drawing board to reality on a scale never before imagined to be possible without waste—yet Dinky did it without a cent stolen or wasted. There you go. You just gotta try.

Ryan uses the CCT money to buy school supplies and other needs of the kids. The day the photo was taken he gave them a treat. Jollibee fried chicken for them and nothing for him but something more filling: the sight of his happy children.

There you go, another of those men and women that the Jews speak of, whose goodness keeps God from destroying the world. Say thank you to them, wherever they lurk.